Word Studies

Word Studies

Word studies may be one of the oldest forms of Bible study. In the early 1500’s Martin Luther used a form of word study long before the term was coined. Through the leading of the Holy Spirit he linked Bible verses together for a number of subjects including salvation, the Bible as the Word of God that needs no other source, the need for humility and many others. Even before Luther others compiled simple word studies to show the divinity of Christ, guidelines on tithing and forgiveness.

Strong’s Concordance copy written in 1890 has been used over the years by many to compile word studies. One can only guess how many evangelist have used Strong’s Concordance to look up the perfect text to complete a sermon. But how many know how to use these skills today? Is this becoming a lost art?

Today we have thousands of web sites containing hundreds of sermons that preachers can simply copy, paste, do a few changes and the weeks work is complete. This is good to a point and not all preachers copy their messages, but as more use the Internet, fewer are using the Bible. The Bible is God’s letter to this world.

Have you noticed that today’s sermons use fewer Bible text? At the same time we are seeing fewer people reading their Bibles.

KJV John 4:13-14

13. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

KJV John 6:32-35

32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34. Then said they unto him, Lord, ever more give us this bread. 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

It was not by accident that Jesus has been compared to bread and water. Jesus came to this world to die for the sins of this world and offer His salvation to all. Jesus also came to this world to reveal the Father, God. While completing His work here on earth Jesus taught the disciples how to reach others. This is found dozens of times in the book of Acts.

KJV Acts 1:3

3. To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

What are these “things” that Jesus taught the disciples? We know that these “things” pertain to the kingdom of God. But we need details and instructions.

KJV Acts 1:15-16

15. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) 16. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

Peter taught what was in the scriptures. To be precise, Peter showed others what the prophesies said about Christ. This is what Peter used to baptize thousands. Why are we ignoring this method of evangelism today?

The best way to win a soul to Christ is to teach them to study. Learning to do word studies is one way to accomplish that goal.

A word study can be as simple as reading a verse, seeing a word you do not understand, looking that word up in a Concordance and viewing other text on that word. Let’s take a look at an example.

KJV Deuteronomy 32:33

33. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

This verse poses a number of questions. One of these questions is, are there really dragons? We could debate this question with our own limited knowledge or we could look the word “dragon” up in a Concordance and look at a few verses to see if the Bible can answer this question.

KJV Revelation 12:7-9

7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The above text clearly shows that the dragon represents Satan. Next we apply the translation to the original verse and see if it makes sense. To paraphrase Deut 32:33:

Their wine is the poison of Satan, and the cruel venom of asps.

Now is a good time to include a couple of rules of interpretation. You should never come up with any interpretation using only one verse. You should use at least three verses to prove an interpretation. We used one here to save time and space. The second rule is that when a symbolic word is substituted, it needs to agree with the overall theme of the Bible. You can see the hand of God working in all of this based on the fact that the initial pillars of the Christian faith were well established before the Concordance was complied. In doing that God provided the foundation of basic beliefs that all new understandings are to be measured against.

We all know a few symbolic words and their meanings. Bread and water can represent Christ. A sea can represent people. The dragon is Satan. How many can you list? I have compiled over 300 symbolic words and their meaning over the years. Other have listed more than 800.

It takes time and practice to develop a method of study. Think of it as understanding a foreign language. You can not go to a foreign country, wake up the next day and expect to speak the language. It is not the word study that is the foreign language but the Holy Spirit that needs practice to fully understand. With just a little practice you will have experiences looking up text on a single word while the Holy Spirit will be revealing truths you have never imagined. At times these new truths will be easy to share with others. There will also be times when you will be touched with something that you can see so clearly but find it so difficult to explain to others.

How do you recognize a verse that you can reform a word study on? One of the easiest ways to recognize a perspective verse is to use the physical rule. If the verse uses terms that go against the laws of nature, the symbols must be spiritual.

KJV Revelation 16:13

13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

We know it is not physically possible for a frog to live inside of a dragon or a beast or a prophet. The frog must than be a spiritual symbol explained else where in the Bible.

There are other rules involved in interpreting the Bible using word studies. The rules outlined by William Miller can be found else where on this site.